Keepsake Box

I made this box for my sister in law as a high school graduation present. At the time I finished it I was in a hurry to get ready for the flight out to Colorado to give it to her and didn’t have time to take a lot of pictures. Now that we live in the same state again I hope to borrow it someday soon to take some better pictures. The box is made from leopard wood with a Purple Heart lid. The inlay is maple and padauk and was left over from my bible box project that I was working on at the same time and I thought it would look good in the lid. This was my first time using leopard wood and I really liked the way the grain looked after applying some varnish. I saw the design for this box in a woodworking magazine article, it may have been woodsmith, but I can’t quite remember. I was very interested in all of the different angles incorporated into the project. The box angles up like a pyramid at its base and the lid is wrapped with angled pieces on leopardwood. To finish the box I used general finishes wiping varnish on the outside and shellac on the inside. So far this is my preferred finishing method as I do not have the tools for spraying. A few firsts for me on this project included the mitered splines (Purple Heart) and the piano hinge. This was also my first time resawing a board on the bandsaw, which I did to make the bottom of the box and the sides out of a single piece. One of the biggest lessons I learned from this piece was the importance of choosing your hardware before you start the box. I ended up picking the piano hinge without thinking about how long the screws would be and when the box was finished the lid was too thin for the screws, it ended up fine but I wasted a lot of time driving around town looking for a hardware store that sold small enough brass screws to make it work. Overall I was very happy with how it turned out and it took significantly less time than my bible box. I hope to make another similar one someday for my wife.